Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are susceptible to respiratory tract infections at an early age; with the most frequent initial isolate being the Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Subsequently, these patients become chronically...

The overarching goal of this thesis was two-fold. First, to determine if the effects of chronic anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) treatment on anxiety-like behaviors are sex-specific and second to determine how different environmental modulators...

The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is responding sensitively to climate change and its meltwater has the potential to influence global sea level. Recently, large changes in the GrIS have occurred including increased velocities of outlet glaciers and...

Mutualisms may facilitate coupled population expansion or decline if changes in either partner species lead to similar changes in the other species. However, few studies have measured how both species in a mutualism respond to changes in each...

When we want to know what others are thinking or feeling, we look to their face for clues. Affective neuroscience has usefully documented behavioral, psychophysiological and neural responses to the facial displays of others. Though this work...

Elevated sympathetic discharge from the CNS is an underlying pathogenic mechanism in neurogenic hypertension and an exacerbating factor in chronic heart failure (CHF). Current treatment of these diseases focuses on attenuation of the downstream...

Protein secretion is executed by the secretory pathway, which involves the delivery of membrane and soluble secretory proteins in vesicle intermediates that capture newly-synthesized proteins assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and then...

Acyl-coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) plays important roles in cellular cholesterol homeostasis and in early stages of atherogenesis. ACAT has been investigated as a pharmaceutical target, yet its active site(s) remain largely...

A Smith-Purcell Free Electron Laser test-facility has been developed. The structure is used to conduct detailed explorations that novel resonator designs will have on tunability, start current and other performance criteria. Emphasis is on sources...

Intracellular transport between the ER and Golgi is mediated by vesicles that bud from donor membranes and then fuse with acceptor membranes. Bi-directional vesicle transport maintains distinct organelle composition through a process known as...

The eukaryotic secretory pathway delivers proteins and lipids to their correct destination in a regulated manner. Transport through the secretory pathway is mediated by vesicles or tubular elements that bud from donor compartments. These transport...

Many intracellular transport events are mediated by vesicles that bud from donor membranes and then fuse with acceptor membranes. The transport of secretory proteins between the ER and Golgi compartments of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has...

Vesicle mediated intracellular transport through the secretory pathway requires the formation of transport vesicles from a donor compartment followed by vesicle tethering and fusion with an appropriate acceptor compartment. The anterograde...

Cholesterol is essential for the survival of all mammalian cells. Mammalian cells obtain cholesterol via two pathways: it can be endogenously synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum, or it can be obtained from exogenous sources, mainly through the...

The cellular mechanisms of degradation of a transmembrane protein, the acetylcholine receptor (AChR), have been examined in a mouse muscle cell line, BC3H-1. The half-time of degradation of cell surface receptors labeled with...

During postembryonic development of C. elegans the heterochronic gene lin-14 controls the timing of developmental events in diverse cell types. Three alternative lin-14 transcripts are predicted to encode isoforms of a novel nuclear protein that...

Retinoids, natural and synthetic derivatives of vitamin A, are active in cancer treatment and chemoprevention. There is a need for an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms that account for retinoid response or resistance in lung cancer...

Geological mapping, petrological and geophysical studies in the lake Atitlan area, Guatemala, have revealed four distinct periods of stratovolcano growth, each followed by major silicic eruptions and caldera collapse. The first period (12 - 11 my...

Transport vesicles form at a donor compartment and fuse to an acceptor compartment mediate the movement of cargo proteins within eukaryotic cells from one subcellular compartment to another. COPII vesicles specifically provide the means of...

This dissertation presents the use and extension of capabilities of surface machining technology, utilizing stress engineering between polysilicon and silicon nitride layers to build three-dimensional microstructures. A new theory and experimental...

Statement of the problem. Nosocomial bloodstream infections (NBSIs) are a significant source of morbidity and mortality for the very low birth weight babies (VLBW) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Efforts to reduce the rates of infection...

Prior to biological conversion of lignocellulosic biomass, natural barriers to efficient enzymatic hydrolysis must be overcome, and a few pretreatment technologies effectively accomplish this job with chemicals. Although several factors are...

Solid-state approaches to quantum computing include quantum dot qubit implementations based on the Loss-DiVincenzo proposal. Prior work in GaAs two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) materials serves as a proving ground for device designs that can be...

Studies of the secretory pathway have revealed a multitude of secretory proteins that depend on the coat protein complex II (COPII) for export from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in transport vesicles. Some secretory proteins require protein...

Endothelial cell migration is an important element of a number of biological processes, including angiogenesis. The fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are a family of angiogenic heparan-binding proteins that potently induce endothelial migration....

The first chapter of this thesis encompasses progress towards the X-ray structure determination and drug design for the dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) enzyme from the protozoa Toxoplasma gondii, along with another mutant...

Zinc deficiency is a widespread and common problem in many organisms. In plants, zinc deficiency causes growth inhibition, resulting in reduced final yields. Although zinc is an essential element in plants, zinc uptake, translocation and...